China

Cranes, a flagship species of waterbirds, have great cultural significance - especially the Siberian Crane. Yet, even after decades of conservation efforts, cranes remain threatened with 11 species at risk. To help reverse these trends, the UNEP/GEF Siberian Crane Wetland Project  was the first project to its kind to take a "flyway" approach to conservation, looking to secure the ecological integrity of a network of 16 critical wetlands in Eurasia.

As our cities continue to grow, we should defend the protection of natural areas and even try to create new space for nature within this urban fabric. This volume explains the context and concept of urban protected areas, profiles urban protected areas in 15 metropolitan areas around the world, and offers best practice guidelines.

This report is the first one delivered under the Python Conservation Partnership. Established in November 2013, the Partnership aims to contribute to the improved sustainability of the python skin trade and to help facilitate industry-wide change. The present report provides information on how pythons are farmed in Asia, farming’s impact on local livelihoods and the relative contribution of captive python skins to the total trade.

The surge in Chinese investments in Africa has brought about a flurry of questions expressing concern over their ecological impact in the host countries. till, the principles and implementation of environmental management by Chinese firms remains largely unknown. This work is an attempt to provide some insight on this subject, based on a case study in Chad, on a project that was initiated in 2009 by the leading Chinese petroleum firm, CNPC.

This document discusses the need to balance short-term water productivity gains – in particular in agriculture - with the long-term role that water flows provide for maintaining sustainable landscape ecosystem services (ESS), and serving multiple benefits to human well-being. The document provides a summary of concepts around the nexus of water productivity, water flows in landscapes and ecosystem services.

This publication considers the crucial question -- how to reconcile the modern world's unceasing demand for energy with the absolute necessity to preserve the integrity of the biosphere.

This publication is an excerpt of the report, "Decoupling natural resource use and environmental impacts from economic growth : a report of the working group on decoupling to the International Resource Panel".

This report provides a solid foundation for the concept of decoupling, clearly defining key terms and providing empirical evidence of escalating resource use. It shows that decoupling is already taking place to some extent, but is lagging far behind its potential. The scenarios show that we are facing a historic choice about how we use resources and the report scopes the potential of innovation, rethinking economic growth and the role of cities in building more resource efficient economies.